“Does this Council have a policy of duck culling?” was the question posed by former Mayor and Marlborough resident Marian Hannaford-Dobson to Councillors at Monday (20 July) evening’s meeting of the full Town Council.
“I have visited Cooper’s Meadow many times of late. One could not fail to notice that there is not a single duck residing in Cooper’s Meadow. Plenty of rats I might add but not a single duck or fish that I can see in the river.
I can personally vouch for the fact that they were literally DOZENS of ducks in residence for at least thirty years.” she added.
Mrs Hannaford-Dobson has contacted the British Wildfowl Association who assured her that there haven’t been any reports of disease amongst the duck population and that the likely causes would be either a ‘catastrophic spillage of pollutants’ or ‘human intervention’.
Whilst, as she noted, there haven’t been any reports of Cooper’s Meadow being affected by pollution, she asked “has this Council or one of its partners a policy to rid Marlborough completely of its ducks?”
Marlborough.news contacted the Town Council to ask about any specific action against the duck population and they confirmed that no such policy or action against the duck population existed, or none that they were aware of.
At the same meeting Councillor Nick Fogg raised the question of the significant increase in the pigeon population in Marlborough. “I’ve had a number of people comment to me on the incredible blight of pigeons that is infesting our town”…”They are all over the place and I’m getting complaints from every quarter.” He did suggest that the Town copy Ken Livingstone’s strategy when Mayor of London and “put something in their porridge”, but as to quite what he didn’t elaborate.
A coincidence – could there be some relationship between the disappearance of ducks and the escalation of the pigeon population? Ducks masquerading as pigeons? Probably a flight of fancy too far…..
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